THE EXECUTIONER
Part Three
"Don't worry, no one besides you and me will ever know about this. And besides, I got her to come out and slipped something into her drink—she didn't notice a thing, she's really that naive. The police won't find anything. I disguised the scene to look like the Executioner's handiwork. Who would've thought that old legend would actually come in handy."
What kind of bullshit Executioner? Do you think the police are all idiots?!
"Heh heh..." Lucy gave a cold laugh. "You don't believe in my IQ? I'm a member of Mensa—I scored 140 on the IQ test. If I hadn't caught a cold on the day of the college entrance exam and underperformed, I never would've ended up at this crappy school. Of course, if that had happened, I never would've met you either... Trust me, I've erased every useful trace from the scene."
Jared Yates looked at Lucy, who was calmly reciting all of this, and couldn't help but draw a sharp breath. She was like a cold, sleek, venomous snake, constantly flicking its tongue at the prey it wanted to capture. Looking at her beautiful face and refined features, Jared Yates could only feel a chill creeping up his spine to his brain.
Lucy had already taken off her clothes and was coiling around him like a snake, as though divulging all of this had greatly stimulated her desire. Her face was flushed, her eyes half-closed, and she murmured sensually: "Zhiqi, I did all of this for you, so that we could be together forever. Now we're bound together on the same rope, and we can never be separated again."
5.
Jared Yates hadn't been able to sleep for several nights.
Something major had happened at the school, and as the students' counselor, it was his duty to provide psychological counseling to them at once. Jared Yates called Lydia into his office, closed the door, and brewed a cup of tea, setting it in front of her. "Don't be too upset about your brother's situation. My condolences."
Lydia didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Both her eyes were swollen—she had no tears left—but she still forced the words out: "He wouldn't even dare kill a chicken. I don't believe he did it."
"I don't believe it either."
"Mr. Yang, do you believe my brother was innocent?"
Jared Yates didn't answer right away. After a pause, he suddenly said: "You know, Lydia, the Executioner is really just a costume, like a painted skin. Whoever puts it on becomes the Executioner."
And on that night, Song Yi put on the Executioner's costume and transformed into the terrifying figure from campus urban legends. He wore a rubber mask and tailed a girl walking home alone late at night, carrying a rusted axe stained with what appeared to be blood—perfectly imitating the figure from the legend.
The night was pitch-dark, and Song Yi never realized that the person he was following was none other than Lucy, the beauty of the chemistry department. Lucy had just finished an experiment, and her bag still held half a bottle of sulfuric acid. When she noticed she was being followed, they had already reached the edge of campus. Having heard that the Executioner had reappeared on campus, Lucy didn't feel afraid—instead, she felt a faint thrill of excitement.
She deliberately quickened her pace, hid around a corner, and when her pursuer came close, she suddenly emerged and splashed sulfuric acid into his face. A cloud of white smoke billowed up instantly. The concentrated sulfuric acid fused the rubber mask to his skin, and Song Yi dropped his axe, rolling on the ground in agony. Lucy didn't miss the opportunity—she picked up the axe and struck the writhing Song Yi with all her might.
Lydia was staring at him, eyes wide, unable to believe what she was hearing. But Jared Yates continued: "When Lucy realized she was being followed, she had already decided to kill. The police had started investigating my social connections and my girlfriend's. Lucy's act would serve as the perfect way to divert their attention."
"Your girlfriend... you don't mean..."
"That's right. She was killed by Lucy."
Lydia was stunned beyond words. "Why?"
"To get me."
"But isn't Lucy just with Zack Hart?"
"That was just a facade. After Lucy killed Song Yi, Zack Hart, who had been hiding in the shadows watching, was terrified. But he quickly recovered and staged a 'heroic intervention' scene, taking the blame for the murder. His condition was that Lucy had to honor her promise to be his girlfriend. Their relationship won't last long."
After hearing all this, Lydia, who had been rocked by shock, slowly calmed down. "Mr. Yang, since you know all of this, why haven't you told the police?"
"Tell the police? What evidence? Even if the police accepted all this, I'd be an accomplice. You should know how hard it was for me to get from a rural village in northern Jiangsu to where I am today."
"Then why are you telling me all this?"
"Because our goals are the same."
"Goals?"
"Yes. You want to avenge your brother, and I want to rid myself of that psychotic woman." Jared Yates closed his eyes, and Lucy's cold face flashed in his mind like an ice pick driven into his heart. He didn't want to spend his entire life enduring this torment.
"What makes you think I'd help you achieve that?"
"I've seen your file. You scored 145 on the IQ test when you enrolled, and this year you received an invitation to join Mensa. I think that if you set your mind to it, there's nothing you can't accomplish." Jared Yates slid a packet of powder across the table. "This is a hallucinogen that Lucy mixed herself. It won't show up on an autopsy—this is what she used on my girlfriend."
Lydia took the powder, and her expression gradually turned resolute. Jared Yates saw all of this and knew that his risky gambit had paid off.
One week later.
It was a morning like any other on campus—bustling and busy. But before the first class bell could even ring, a piercing siren sounded. Several police cars pulled up outside the men's dormitory, and a crowd of onlookers packed the area so tightly that no one could get through. Jared Yates stood on tiptoe in the crowd but couldn't see anything. Instead, he overheard snippets of conversation from nearby students:
"What's going on? So many police?"
"Don't you know? They found the Executioner!"
"But the Executioner was already caught, wasn't it? It was that Zack Hart from your department—the one who found Song Yi."
"Ha! That was a frame-up! The real Executioner is Zack Hart!"
"That's right, I heard about it. Zack Hart killed Lucy from the chemistry department. What a shame."
"I know about that! Lucy had been missing for days, and they just found her body in Zack Hart's car. She was naked in the trunk, and it reeked. It was gruesome—there was an axe in the trunk covered in Zack Hart's fingerprints."
"Holy shit, what kind of car?"
"That Porsche he drove around in every day. Who knew he was such a psycho, absolutely disgusting."
"Lucy was such a pretty girl, and he just killed her like that?"
"Screw that, you don't understand rich people's tastes."
Jared Yates slowly backed out of the crowd, took a deep breath, and walked toward the teaching building. For some reason, he suddenly felt a wave of relief wash over his entire body. He felt as light as a swallow, almost flying. Just then, he saw Lydia walking toward him. Lydia looked completely different from usual—well-dressed, with makeup on, her lips red and tender, beautifully alluring.
"Good morning, Mr. Yang," Lydia greeted him.
"Mm." Jared Yates nodded awkwardly, then added in a low voice, "Well done."
"Hehe." Lydia smiled, but instead of walking past him, she slipped her arm through his and said playfully: "Mr. Yang, I'm heading to class right now—let's walk together."
"Lydia, what are you..." Jared Yates said, startled.
"I've had a crush on you for a long time, Mr. Yang, but I never had a chance before." A bashful look crossed Lydia's face, and then she looked up with a smile: "Now it's fine. We're bound together on the same rope, and we can never be separated again."
THE END